Note, use the present tense.
Here are the main tasks that you would want to complete in the general discussion section of your research paper along with useful expressions for each task.
1. Summarize your study
• [Motivation/Purpose] The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of …
• [Method Summary] To test the hypothesis, we compared XX between two groups
2. Discuss your results
• [Illustrate the main findings] There are three key findings of the present research. First … Second … Third ….
• [Highlight the most important finding] Our findings highlight … / We obtained evidence that …
• [Discuss the finding in relation to the hypothesis] The results of the present study support the hypothesis that …
3. Discuss the implications of your study
• The results of this research provide supporting evidence that …/ The results strongly imply that … / One interpretation of these findings is that … / This finding may be explained by the idea that … / Taken together, our findings indicate … / In my view, the most compelling explanation for the present set of findings is that …
• [Findings that are unexpected or worth noting] It is interesting that … / • Two other results from this study merit comment. First … Second …
• (Despite these limitations,) these results suggest several theoretical and practical implications.
• These data have some potential intervention implications. For example …
• These results represent the first direct demonstration of …
• It seems useful to point out issues that may conflict with these results. (This can be used for discussing the limitations of the study).
4. Discuss your results in relation to other findings
• This idea is further supported by the finding that … (citation).
• This pattern of results is consistent with the previous literature … (citation).
• These results are consistent with the claim that …
• The present results are consistent with Author et al.’s (year) work that deals with …
• Whereas past researchers have found … (citation; citation; citation), the present study has shown …
5. Study limitations
• There are at least three potential limitations concerning the results of this study. A first limitation
concerns … A second potential limitation is that …
• One limitation of this study is that … It is possible that …
• Although the present results clearly support …, it is appropriate to recognize several potential
limitations.
• Besides our own interpretation of the data, an additional explanation warrants comment. For example, researchers have suggested … (citation).
• The present study represents a first attempt to address these issues. Further research examining … may shed light on …
6. Directions for future research
• Although these studies support … , their most important contribution may be that they raise a variety of intriguing questions for future study.
• In terms of future research, it would be useful to extend the current findings by examining …
• If, as the present study suggests, … then there is a need for research that explores …
• Much work remains to be done before a full understanding of the extent of … is established.
• In addition to those already mentioned, we suggest several avenues of research that may be helpful.
• Certain limitations of this study could be addressed in future research. For example …
7. Closing statement or paragraph
• Despite these limitations, this research can be seen as a first step towards integrating two lines of research, [x and y], that, to our knowledge, have not been directly linked.
• Despite these limitations, the present study has enhanced our understanding of the relationship between [x and y]. We hope that the current research will stimulate further investigation of this important area.
• The present research, therefore, contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that …
• In summary, our research replicates (citation) … The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence …
• Although the generality of the current results must be established by future research, the present study has provided clear support for …
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.